


Flight of Crow

by ideallyqualia



Series: Rare Pairs [69]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Universe, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-23 23:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8346265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ideallyqualia/pseuds/ideallyqualia
Summary: There’s only so much that distance can do. And everywhere is a far-off concept until it’s everywhere.





	

**Author's Note:**

> i've been meaning to do this ship for a rly long time, but i put it off. here we are.

Tsukishima heard a voice say his name. It rung familiar, but he couldn't place it, and in the silence of the library, he didn't want to. He ignored it and continued browsing the books on the shelves.

Tendou stopped him before he could leave the book aisle.

"What're you doing? Didn't you hear me before?" Tendou asked. He placed a hand on a shelf, almost leaning into it.

"I did," Tsukishima said.

He turned and walked away. Tendou didn't grab his arm or slip in somehow to stop him, so he continued undaunted.

Tendou slid in from the other side of the aisle. He poked his head out as he crept in smoothly, his hands in exaggerated claws on the wood of the shelf. "Ha! You thought I left? I ran around the corner!"

Tsukishima dodged him with a small angled movement away, diverting his attention from him in a smooth return, soft-edged like the flow of a river through a turning riverbank. He walked slightly faster, quiet, but Tendou still followed.

"Why're you here in Sendai?" Tendou asked, in a quieter voice, following Tsukishima's silence, too.

"I'm looking for a book for a project. It's not in any of the libraries near Karasuno."

"You came all the way over here for that? Impressive. Huh, that's what you want to hear, right?" Tendou leaned forward beside him, fading his question into wordless noises.

"I only came to get a book."

Tendou laughed. He hesitated and then gathered himself into a lower laugh after a glare from a library staffer.

"You're so polite, you're not going to even say anything direct?" Tendou breathed another laugh. "You remind me of Kenjirou! Our setter, y'know. He does almost the same thing."

"I remember who he is."

"You're really going to keep it up? You're really good at it. What else are you good at? Anything?"

Tsukishima stared at him. "Your team _lost_ to my team."

"That's true, that _is_ true." After a few moments spinning it in his head, Tendou burst out laughing. "That stings."

As they passed by a staffed desk, someone bent forward to catch their attention. "Can you please be quieter?"

"Ah, uh. Alright..." Tendou crossed his arms and mumbled. He shrunk, receding between his shoulders with an almost unreadable instantaneity, just enough for Tsukishima to notice.

Tsukishima snorted.

"You can't _laugh_ at me," Tendou said.

"I'm not laughing."

"It doesn't matter."

"Shouldn't it...?" Tsukishima shook his head and moved a distance of a step away to the front desk. "I have something to do, and then I'll get going."

"I got it, the hint. I should get going too, huh? And leave you alone. It's weird and a little uncomfortable that I appeared out of nowhere. That's what you're thinking this whole time."

"No. I don't really think anything of it. I'm just stopping by." Tsukishima shrugged and walked ahead to check out the book.

He turned around, and Tendou was gone.

 

* * *

 

Tsukishima didn't wander too far off on tangents. He found it hard to believe that any ordinary person could get lost enough to run into another town, or lose track of time and just _end up_ somewhere.

At the casual sight of Tendou on the sidewalk, Tsukishima reconsidered the possibility. He stopped walking, and instead of facing Tendou, he turned and checked the nearest street sign.

"Look who it is!" Tendou waved at him as he approached. "I decided to come visit."

Tsukishima paused. "You...decided..."

"I had to. Almost every store in existence sold out of a new video game I want. _Your_ little town is the only place left," Tendou said. He glanced around.

"Then it's not your decision."

"Don't sweat small stuff, I came and I'm here."

Tsukishima resumed walking. Tendou had been leaning his weight to one foot, and he wobbled to catch up.

"Aren't you gonna show me around?" Tendou asked. He tilted his head with his flapping arms.

Tsukishima raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Why? Why not?"

"You can't expect me to give you a tour when you came without a warning." Tsukishima didn't slow his pace.

Tendou managed to match his speed after a minute. He grinned. "You want a warning next time? The only way I can do that is if you give me your number or something."

"...Don't come next time."

Tendou erupted into laughter. "That's almost not polite! What if I have a very important thing to do sometime, and it involves coming to your town?"

"If it's an errand, do you really have to come find me?"

"I found you by accident. J _uuust_ like how you found me the other day." Tendou hummed and stretched his arms, and then folded them behind his head.

Tsukishima's eyes flickered to him. "I didn't find you."

"There I was, minding my own business at the library," Tendou reminisced, "and when I looked up, Tsukishima Kei was standing in my way."

"I doubt I was in your way."

"You were very in my way." Tendou caught sight of a street branching off of theirs, and the beginnings of shops at the corner, and he perked with a bright noise. "What's over there? Is there food? Wanna come?"

Tsukishima's head turned more to face him and consider. "I'm on my way to go somewhere, so I can't."

"I might get lost. Want that on your conscience?"

"It wouldn't be on my conscience," Tsukishima said.

Tendou bristled. "That's mean. Could it be that you're actually terrible off the court, too?"

Despite the words, Tendou didn't deliver any of its meaning. His bristling came with a garbled fake-intimidating noise that Tsukishima couldn't make sense of at _all_.

Tsukishima raised his hand to his mouth and coughed.

"What was that? Are you laughing again? Don't laugh, that's not nice."

Tsukishima's steps drifted slightly and slightly away from Tendou. The increments of distance failed to catch Tendou's attention until Tsukishima was already turning away.

"Where're you going? Take me to eat," Tendou said.

"I'm not lying, I really have somewhere to go." Tsukishima gestured down the street.

"Fine, fine. I'll eat by myself." Tendou dismissed him with a wave. "Go, then."

His dismissive tone was fake, too, with all the effectiveness of a pout. Tsukishima said goodbye and let him travel on his own.

 

* * *

 

Anytime Tsukishima came anywhere near Shiratorizawa, he expected to meet Tendou again. He didn't resent it, or hope for it, he just observed it -- it was probably going to happen. An event that should, statistically, be just as likely as finding any other Shiratorizawa player on the street, or even someone from Aobajousai or Datekou.

The experience of knowing Tendou told Tsukishima otherwise. The _bias_ of knowing Tendou told him that relativity was going to fill in the in-between of "otherwise," and that it was going to _feel_ like Tendou appeared often.

Tsukishima arrived at a small bakery in Sendai with Kageyama, Yamaguchi, and Hinata. Yamaguchi had suggested that they take a reward for overcoming their exams near the end of the year, and once Hinata latched onto the idea of a popular bakery that wasn't even that local, no one could stop him. Hinata convinced them to give in by sheer precedent.

"Buy a lot, so you don't regret buying so little," Kageyama told Hinata.

"That's kind of bad advice..." Yamaguchi said quietly. He tried to hide it, but he was still snickering and avoiding their eyes to duck away.

"What's so bad about buying a lot?" Hinata asked. "It'll last a long time!"

"Food goes bad," Tsukishima said. "You won't be able to eat everything."

"I don't mean a _lot_ a lot." Hinata rolled his eyes, like it was obvious.

Yamaguchi leaned to Hinata. "Do you have a lot of money?" Yamaguchi opened his wallet to broadcast his allowance. "If you're going to buy a lot and won't be able to finish it all, I'll take some."

Tsukishima wrinkled his nose. "That's just as bad, Yamaguchi."

"Are you any better?" Tendou asked. He turned, and his arm hung lazily over a seat. Ushijima and Semi sat across from him at a round table.

Semi reached to elbow Tendou. He wound up being too far away, and he stretched and fumbled out of his seat to shove Tendou's shoulder. "Don't be mean to someone you've barely met."

Tendou accepted the shove, and swayed, only slightly. "I've barely met him several times, so I've met him, and I know him, y'know."

"You _know_ someone from Shiratorizawa?!" Hinata swiveled to Tsukishima.

"No, not really."

Tendou squawked, and the effort let out a deflating twitch. "That's _not_ the truth."

"He just said he doesn't know you. Leave him alone and turn back around," Semi said.

"He said _not really_ and he's joking. Leave _me_ alone." Tendou swatted Semi's hands away.

Tsukishima and his group moved ahead in line. Tendou's table fell away in the commotion of the bakery, and the noise of the crowd waiting in line to order.

Yamaguchi crossed his arms. "This place is really nice," he said. His eyes drifted to admire the woodwork scaling half the walls.

"It better be worth it. It'll definitely be worth it," Hinata said. He stepped forward and ordered first.

Kageyama stepped closer to Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, closing in to secure the group's circle again. "How're we even going to find a table?"

"We'll just let Hinata find one since he went first," Tsukishima said.

"Let Hinata _pick_?" Yamaguchi asked.

"Alright, you have a point."

"Let's make him wait," Kageyama conceded.

Hinata didn't wait. The three of them spent ten minutes scouring tables for him, and they found him. Not at an empty table, but hovering around occupied ones, waiting for one close to Tendou, Semi, and Ushijima to open up.

"We can't eat like this. Let's go find a table." Yamaguchi pulled on Hinata's arm.

"What if...what if we sat at their table?" Hinata suggested. He rose on his feet. "Let's go!"

"There isn't even enough _room_." Kageyama nudged at Hinata's shoulder to move him, and together, he and Yamaguchi convinced Hinata to give in.

They claimed a table on the other side of the room. Hinata slumped into his seat.

"Did anyone get napkins?" Yamaguchi asked. He glanced around and got back up. "I'll be right back."

Tsukishima ate without waiting for him. He swallowed and took a drink, and then choked when Tendou blurred in and appeared quickly.

"Is this seat taken?" Tendou asked as he slid into Yamaguchi's chair.

Hinata gathered his food closer to himself. "All the food's extra-taken."

Tendou laughed and took a cookie out of his sweater pocket. "I already have food."

"Did you abandon your own friends?" Tsukishima asked.

"Nah. They're talking, busy." Tendou pulled out a small milk carton from his sweater and opened it.

Tsukishima watched him. "Did you even eat with them?"

"Of course I did." Tendou paused and met Tsukishima's eyes. He gauged the line of eyesight, and then took out another milk carton. "Do you want one?"

"How do you have _more_?" Kageyama asked.

"They fit perfectly. You can't even tell." Tendou retrieved a third one and lined it up with the others.

Yamaguchi returned with a stack of napkins. His hand lowered. "I don't have a chair now."

Tendou turned and dragged an extra chair from a nearby table, ignoring the people sitting there that stopped talking and watched. "Take this. No one's using it."

Yamaguchi sat down hesitantly.

"Why're you here?" Tsukishima asked. He reconsidered and decided to specify, "At this table."

"I'm here out of fate and magic. We keep bumping into each other." Tendou leaned his arms backward on his chair. "What do you think of that?"

Tsukishima took his time finishing a bite, and in opening his mouth to say, "I don't know."

Tendou grumbled. "You're supposed to say something, anything."

"I thought you were good at reading people," Hinata said.

"On the court, yeah, I'm the best."

"Where's that now?"

"I can't read _minds_."

Hinata sat back. "Oh."

"Is that what you _thought_?" Kageyama asked him.

Tendou angled away from them. "You're still so perfect and politely irritating, as ever."

"Are you annoyed?"

"Nope." Tendou hummed. "Hn. You're poised and balanced, and you try to imply I'm bothering you, but you let me stay. You're not bothered because you won that match, is that it?"

"I'm not bothered because it doesn't bother me."

"Isn't it weird that I keep talking to you, huh? You've never been bothered by it. That's suspicious."

"You're reading too much into this," Tsukishima said.

Tendou scoffed. "Fine. Alright. I'm going back." He fished out a second cookie hidden in the confines of a napkin bundle. He pushed it and the milk to Tsukishima. "Have a treat."

Tsukishima tried to speak, but Tendou left too fast to let him. He simply stared after him.

"I thought you being happy would be _scary_ , but it's not," Hinata said.

Tsukishima swiveled to him. "What?"

"You both smiled a lot. But not out there easy to see, it was, secretive and weird."

"Hinata," Yamaguchi said, "that's called flirting."

Tsukishima choked.

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to be this grand relationship study of them reacting to each other finding each other in different places, but that started to sound like it'd get too long.
> 
> (General A/N that exists at the end of all my fics): I find unsolicited concrit really rude, I'm not looking for any. Please don't tell me someone was OOC/something happened you didn't like/it's too short/etc. in any bookmarks or comments.


End file.
